The ink-jet printing industry uses different types of recording fluids such as oil-based inks, solvent-based (non-aqueous) inks, water-based inks, and solid inks (which are melted in preparation for dispensing). Solvent-based inks are fast drying, and as a result, are widely used for industrial printing. When solvent-based inks containing binders and other ingredients are jetted onto a substrate, the solvent(s) partially or fully evaporate from the ink, leaving the binder and other ingredients such as pigment particles on the printed substrate in the form of a dry film.
During the drying process, the solvents, which are often volatile organic compounds (VOC), emit vapors, and therefore, can pollute the environment. The pollution problem becomes more critical for higher printing speeds or for wide format images, where large amounts of ink are deposited onto a substrate. Thus, it would be valuable to provide a non-aqueous solvent-based ink that does not pollute the environment, but still performs acceptably compared to other more traditional inks.